Beatles song completed after 40 years

A forgotten and half-finished Beatles song, written by George Harrison, has
finally been completed - 40 years on.

The Beatles: R to L George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr

8:22AM GMT 02 Nov 2009

Harrison gave the original 10 lines of the track - called Silence (Is It's Own Reply) - to biographer Hunter Davies for inclusion in his band biography, first published in the late 1960s.

They had been discarded as scrap paper on the floor of the legendary Abbey Road studio until being found by cleaners.

The lyrics remained ignored until BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Spencer Leigh approached contemporary songwriter Dean Johnson about turning them into a finished song.

Dean, from Oxton, Wirral, said: "The words were both brutally honest and compassionate and Harrison was obviously writing from the heart.

"I just tried by my best ability to get into the mind of someone in George's position and I am so pleased that most people who have heard it, think I achieved a credible continuity with the original lyrics."

The song's lyrics were first thought to about unrequited love but are now believed to allude to Harrison's uneasy relationship with John Lennon.

Harrison wrote: "I'm happy to say that it's only a dream/When I come across people like you/It's only a dream and you make it obscene/With the things that you think and you do/You're so unaware of the pain that I bear/And jealous for what you can't do."

On the reverse side of the lyrics are instructions on how to reach Beatles manager Brian Epstein's country house in Sussex, written in Epstein's hand.

The are now on display in the British Library's Beatles collection, along with more material loaned by Hunter who plans to donate everything to the library after his death.

The lost lyrics are in the latest edition of Hunter's Beatles biography, republished later this month.